Title: Sarmatian Ladies
Author: Jmaria
Rating: PG-13 - R
Disclaimers/Spoilers: Joss owns the Buffy crew, Bruckheimer, Franzoni, & Fuqua own this incarnation of Arthur & his knights. A bit of Kassandra's backstory is borrowed from Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Firebrand. It goes without saying that I do not own her stuff either.
Summary:
A/N: So. What took me so long in getting this part out? Well, first there was writers block, then there were exams, and slightly before exams there was the comp crash of '06 that shook my fragile world. All but the first four paragraphs with Dawn and the first paragraph of Morgana were spared. So everything was rewritten. Trevor's flashback scene is lifted from As I Lay Dying in 22 for 22 -( over at Twisting the Hellmouth)

15. Wish Fulfillment

Gwenhwyfar shivered suddenly for, although the sky was cloudless, shadows were falling across the water. "What is happening?" she asked.
The Morrigan turned toward the water. "Those are the souls of the dead. Rhiannon waits for them on the other side."
The water was nearly black now. So many souls, Gwenhwyfar thought.
- Camelot's Destiny, Cynthia Breeding

Summers Cottage, 2005

Faith's hands were firmly on her hips as she glared up at the older and only slightly taller man in front of her. He wanted to be a bitch about things? Well, she could be the best bitch right back at him. Garrett, Gavin, and Vi all watched eagerly from the table where they were finishing their breakfast.

"Didja not here me, knight boy?" Faith demanded.

"I'm not about to be trained by some slip of a girl for a battle we're not even sure is coming," Trevor said in his quiet-creepy voice.

"Hey!" Vi protested, getting equal glares from both Faith and Trevor. "I'm a slayer, not a slip of a girl, you know."

"Yes, and why don't you hurry and train us, o great slayer," Garrett muttered, yanking her quietly from the kitchen.

"But - " Vi caught the looks Garrett and Gavin were giving her and decided that now might be a good time to make a quick exit. "Okay, on second thought. Training it is."

Trevor and Faith ignored them as they hurried out the door, too caught up in their own angry glares. Images flickered across Trevor's mind as he watched her angry glare more intensely than he wanted to admit, at least to her.

Giggling children running in a field together, hands clasped as they fell in the high grass. Her smiling face beaming up at him, the feel of her hand on his cheek as she reached up to kiss him. Another image of the two children, not much older carving apples. Rotted bits unusable for the meal being playfully tossed at each other. And the brief moment, where her eyes had held only hurt, only pain in his parting. Her words, her painful words that no matter what they meant to him, he could never do as she had asked.

Faith watched as his face softened, saddened even with a nagging curiosity. As soon as that bit of his shell had seemed to break off, it was back again. Before they could get back to their fight, the kitchen door swung open. The silence was broken by Willow's oh-too-happy voice.

"Morning, guys. Are the boys out training yet?" Willow asked cheerfully.

"I'm just going to join them," Trevor said woodenly, his eyes flicking over to the witch before glaring once more at Faith. He nodded to Willow before he leaving the kitchen.

"Has Dawn been down yet?" Willow asked slowly, her eyes watching the slight twitching of Faith's eye.

"Nah, little D's still sleeping, and Gwen's been chatting up Artie since he came over to make breakfast."

"Arthur came over to make breakfast?" Willow frowned. "I thought Boris was doing breakfast this morning?"

"Ah, big B never came home last night," Faith smirked, her eyes finally brightening after the whole Trevor incident. "I better go wake up D. She wanted to play knight-trainer this morning."

"And I'll go get Arthur to join the boys and see about tracking down Boris."

----

Dawn stretched in her bed, moaning at the little aches and pains that came with expectant motherhood. Her eyes were still closed when she felt the mattress dip with the weight of another occupant.

"I'm too tired to open my eyes and guess who's in my room," Dawn murmured.
"Do you have no patience then, My Lady?"

"Dag?" Dawn cried, sitting up with a start.

"D? Everything five by five?" Faith asked.

The room was empty except for Faith, who stood in the open doorway. Dawn blinked back tears of frustration. She had to stop dreaming about him. It just hurt too much to remember him. The dark haired slayer made her way over to the bed.

"Yeah, just a bad dream," Dawn gave her a small smile. "What - what time is it?"
"About ten. You were knocked out, so we let ya sleep. Vi's got the younger knights training downstairs, Trevor put up a bitch fit, and Boris - he hasn't come home yet."
"What?" Dawn cried, pushing off the covers. "What do you mean he hasn't come home yet?"

"D, chill. He's fine. He and Jenna - had some catching up to do. They got to it a helluva lot faster than Gwen and Artie."

"Oh."

Higher Planes

Morgana looked nervously over at the small fog bank that served as her mirror into the human realm. She could feel Merlin's glare on her back as he entered the small alcove she had chosen for her study. He didn't even need to speak for her to know that he was thoroughly disappointed in her.

"I was left with no option, Father," Morgana said quietly. "I had to protect the safety of the knight and his child."

"You mean your child," Merlin said heavily. "Don't use false words to hide your true ambition."

"False words?" Morgana spun around to face her father, anger no longer hidden from her eyes. "You, king of false words and promises, have the gall to tell me I hide behind them?"

"Morgana, you are still guided by your humanity in a game where there can be no such failings!" Merlin hissed, taking his daughter by the arm. "There are those who know of the knight and child and question your ability to do your duty."

"Are you one of them, father? Is Kassandra, in all her Delphic glory, as questioning as you are?"
"No. Kassandra has voiced no question to anyone in -," Merlin caught the look in his daughter's eyes. His voice was barely a whisper as he spoke," Kassandra has set you to this task? She has spoken to none of the elders in a century."

"That is because the elders have abused her champions for too long. She has cringed and bemoaned our lack of interference in the lives of our champions." In truth, Kassandra had been the one to direct her actions since the beginning. Kassandra had always shown her the way to her destiny.

Sarmatian Plains, 464-465

They had kept their fires low, waiting in the underbrush during the day and hunting by night. Isolde brought down the small game, while Elaine had specialized in what vegetation and fowl they could find in this cold season. Viviane normally stayed close to their camp and often did the necessary chores that her fellow warriors did not do. By the time their leader had rejoined them, she was heavy with child. His child. Elaine had been the first to be angered at this revelation.

"You are heavy with his child, live in the finest home in all of the land, are put on display while we stare here in this barren wilderness? You have betrayed us, sister," Elaine spat on her then, and Morgana did not let it rest at that.

"Oh, yes, dear simpering Elaine. I have played you all cruelly," Morgana snapped. "I was treated to the finest things the Lord of Death had to offer, and would have offered to you if I had betrayed your location. I was privy to witness the murder of countless innocents, to His angered caresses to my body because I had so betrayed you, Elaine. I would rather have been here with you, or dead than have been in the Lord of Death's care."

Elaine's anger and frustration had been silenced that night, but the seeds of doubt had already begun to grow between the powerful sisterhood. The child had been born, a strong, healthy boy of the Sarmatian plains. Morgana, while loving the child she thought she never could come to love, knew that her time with the boy would be short-lived. They had places to go, this band of sisters. Places no mother of Sarmatian blood would ever want her son to travel, for it was often a death sentence.

"We leave for Briton in the morn," Morgana announced to them one evening.
"Is that wise?" Viviane asked, her eyes drifting to the newborn in Morgana's lap.

"We made an oath, Viviane," Morgana said quietly, silencing both Isolde and Elaine's protests. "We have been too long from our brothers in the north, and the plains are too open. The winter will be on us quicker than we will it to be."

"And the child?" Viviane had come to love the boy more than the others had, and Morgana knew this would be as hard on the Lady Fox as it would be on her.

"He will stay on the Sarmatian plains," Morgana murmured.

"With whom? There is no one here but us, Morgana. The babe will surely die!" Viviane protested, tears shining in her eyes.

"An ally of ours will take the babe to our people, he has promised the child will be safely delivered. We cannot be delayed any longer."

"He will learn our people's ways well here, sister," Isolde said quietly, speaking for the first time.

"Yes. It is a good choice. He will be free here," Elaine murmured. They knew it was a lie, for they themselves had never been free women on these plains. Yet they found comfort in the lie, so it was easier to believe.

Summers Cottage, 2005

Vi smacked Garrett's arm to get it back in place as she lead them through the basic steps again. Trevor only made derisive noises at her as she put the other knights through their paces. It stung a bit, and he really didn't have to take his frustration with Faith out on her. She was doing them a favor, after all. Okay, so it was really Dawn doing her a favor by letting her stay in her house, but Vi was being helpful with the training. So why did Trevor have such a big bug up his butt about it now? Garrett wasn't helping her nerves with his constant messing up either.

"Okay, The Chaste, I've shown you six times how to hold your arms properly," Vi sighed, brushing a strand of hair way from her eyes. "Elbows bent slightly, palms out. Like this."

"Right."

"What do we have here, then?" A booming voice said from across the yard, startling Vi even more. Boris just grinned at them, his arm wrapped around Jenna's shoulders as they made their way over to the knights.

"Training, supposedly," Trevor muttered loud enough for Vi to hear.

Her lip quivered as she tried desperately for it not to bother her. But it did, because it echoed of Robin's contempt for her back in Cleveland, and Giles' disappointment in her in London. She wasn't cut out for anything but following orders, and slayers like that just got everybody killed. She should have stayed in London, and never come up here no matter how much she wanted to help Dawn. Maybe she should just go before she messed anything else up.

"Doesn't help that I need coaching through every step," Garrett's voice broke through Vi's niggling doubts, and her head snapped up to look into the eyes of the youngest knight. "Never was any good at drills, and I was lousy at sports in school."

"Ah, we'll whip you into shape in no time, boyo," Boris laughed heartly at him.

"Oh the joys of being whipped by teenaged girls and former football coaches," he laughed right back at the older knight.

"I'm not a teenager," Vi gave him a small smile. She nodded towards Boris, "And he's a former assistant coach."

"Yeah," Boris chuckled, giving her a wink.

"Wow, this so does not look like training," Dawn called from the kitchen doorway, a mug in her hand.

"Which means I gotta bust some heads," Faith added, striding across the lawn. "Big B, you better haul ass to get back here in five minutes. Grab A while you're at it."
"Right away, love," Boris gave her a mock salute before kissing Jenna one last time.

"Damn. You had to get the ball-buster out here, didn't you, Boris?" Garrett groaned.

"Jenna, if you'd like you could come have some breakfast with me and Willow," Dawn smiled brightly at her.

"Yeah, I'd like that. Didn't have much time for eatin' earlier," Jenna grinned, crossing the lawn to the kitchen door.

----

A half an hour later, with all the breakfast plates cleaned up and put away, Jenna found herself at the large kitchen table with Dawn, Willow, and Gwen pouring over old volumes of knight lore. She been conscripted into the impromptu research session and found herself having more fun than she had imagined.

"Arthur and I remembered bits of our past," Gwen said quietly, rising to get the tea pot to refill their mugs.

"The whole remembering spell helps with that," Dawn answered, reaching for a tea bag. Gwen slapped at her hand. The younger woman gave her a dirty look.

"No black tea. Green tea for you and the baby, missy," Willow scolded.

"It's healthier."

"I like black tea better, though," Dawn sighed.

"We got you flavored green tea. Raspberry and pomegranate," Gwen laughed. "Now, as I was saying, we remembered something. Mordred and Morgan Le Fay."

"Crap on a stick, they're real?" Dawn cried, rubbing at her temple.

"Afraid so. We know something happened involving them that ruined things between our old selves. Problem is, we can't figure out what that something is. We're sure it had something to do with a child, but what child or whose child it was - it's still a blur to us."

"So are we thinking it's Morgan's child or - "

"It's the other woman's," Gwen said quietly. "Something happened between us, and there was another woman. She gave him a son, and I gave him two daughters. An heir."

No one spoke for several minutes, not sure what to say to that. The hurt and confusion of it all was clear in Gwen's face. It was rough, knowing that you had loved someone that turned and betrayed you. She shook her head, trying to clear it of all those thoughts. A tight smile crossed her face as she looked at the three other women.

"C'mon, we've got a lot of work to do before we go to that picnic later."

"Crap, I forgot about that in all the excitement," Dawn groaned.

----

"Holding your sword like that is going to break your wrists, the Chaste," Vi groaned, marching back over to the knight. He scowled at the snickering from his fellow knights. "Two hands until you've trained your wrists to hold them properly. It's easier to knock a sword out of a single hand than it is to knock it out of the death grip of two."

"And it gets you killed faster, pup," Trevor chuckled, smiling for the first time all day. Vi had to admit he'd been a lot nicer to her once Faith came out and started barking orders.

"Yeah, the Chaste," Vi said quietly so only Garrett could hear her. There was a small smile on her lips as she spoke again. "We wouldn't want anything to happen to such a valiant knight."

Garrett's eyes widened in shock. He had heard those words spoken before, uttered from the same set of lips before him. His brow furrowed as his grip on the heavy broadsword faltered. Vi took a step back, and he realized then that she had felt that same burst of recognition. The other knights were too busy in their own training to notice the utter stillness of the two.

"Viviane?" Garrett asked quietly. "You are her, aren't you?"

"I - I don't know. I can't be, can I? No one else -"

"Vi, come show Gavin how to hold his sword. He's as bad as the Chaste!' Faith called, breaking the spell between the two. She looked at the youngest slayer and knight, "Vi?"

"Yeah, coming," Vi shouted, her eyes still locked on Garrett's.

This was so not of the good at all.

Rome

Buffy wasn't sure what it was that made her book the flight, or pack her things in such a haste. That nagging feeling about Dawn hadn't gone away, and she needed to make sure her little sister was okay. Dawn needed her before and Buffy had chosen to act selfishly. She had known it was wrong, but Dawn's faith in the Powers had angered her more than she cared to admit.

"Mi bella, what is going on?" The Immortal asked -no, he demanded to know. Buffy caught the small irritated tone in his voice. He only did that when he was in demand-mode.

"I - I got a call from Giles. Apparently one of the girls did something wrong, and well, they need the full council there to do a tribunal or something," Buffy lied breezily.

The lying part came naturally, she'd been doing it on the Hellmouth for years. What bothered her was her reasoning for lying. She should have been able to say, 'I'm worried about my pregnant little sister. I'm going to check on her.' So why didn't she just say that? Why make up the whole excuse about the council. Because he would have convinced you that your feeling was nothing to be concerned with, and you would stay here. You want to go to Britain and you won't if he says you're being silly.

"Oh. I had hoped we could take in more of the city this evening," The Immortal said tightly.

"Sorry, my flight leaves in an hour."

"How long will this take?"

"A few days at least, maybe a week The Council just loves to overanalyze everything to death. I'll be back sooner than you think. Honest."

Room 107, ICU

Lanyon wasn't sure what it was bout this man that intrigued him so much. The man wasn't even really a story to be covered. No one knew him, no one knew his story. He was just some poor bastard who was going to die. And yet, there was something about him that bothered Lanyon to no end.

The feeling that he knew this man, had at some point in his life, known this complete stranger bothered him. He shouldn't be so bothered by this man.

"Can I help you, young man?" A gray-haired man spoke from the doorway, startling Lanyon out of thoughts. The man strode forward, leaning on his cane as he made his way into the room. "This patient has only had a handful of visitors, and you are not one of the regulars."

"No, I'm not, sir. My name's Lanyon Fairview. My editor sent me here to do a story on John Doe."

"Story? How much of a story can a vegetable tell you, boy?" the man scoffed. "He hasn't woken since before they pulled him out of the lake. He's barely living on his own, he's being fed by tubes, his waste is taken out by other tubes, and - "

"He's breathing without tubes. That seems to mean something, doesn't it?"

"Very little in the endgame, my boy. Now, I suggest you clear out before I call security."

"Security? For what, sitting at his bedside?" Lanyon cried in disbelief.

"For bothering my patient, young man," the old man's fist tightened on the cane as the realization sunk in.

"You're Old Doctor King. You're the one who wants to pull the plug on Dag," Lanyon breathed in deeply. "You're the one who wants to kill him."

"I do not want to kill anyone. I am merely letting the poor man rest."

"He doesn't want to rest! He wants to live, dammit!" Lanyon shouted just as two large security guards came to stand in the doorway.

"Young man, unless you are a mind reader, you have no clue as to what this poor man wants. Now I suggest you take your leave of my facilities immediately."

The Hollis Home

Dawn had a funny feeling about this massive picnic. Something was bound to go wrong, something was bound to slip out and the poor Hollis family would realize that they were living next to complete freaks. Dawn giggled again. She was like the queen of the freaks. Her fingers shook as she pressed the doorbell. She could hear running and laughing behind the door that seemed to ease her butterflies. Little Lizzie Hollis opened the door and smiled brightly up at Dawn.

"Mummy! The other guests are here!" Lizzie shouted, running back into the house, leaving Dawn and the rest of them at the front door.

"Leave it to Lizzie to leave the guests right where they stand," Jenna laughed, stepping through the doorway. "That child has no manners."

"Like you ever did?" Boris called, taking Dawn's hand as they followed her through the house.

"Haha, so very funny."

"Okay, you two are so creeping me out," Dawn muttered. And making me completely jealous

"Sorry, love."

The trip through the house wasn't long, and soon they found themselves in the back garden. The dark haired Felicia was leaning over a man with a bag of frozen peas pressed to his face. A tall, lanky youth with dark hair held a baby boy in his arms, as Lizzie pulled on another little boy's arm. The last person was a stocky man with light brown hair, who held a little girl in his arms. Dawn frowned for a second, taking in their faces. There was something familiar about them.

"Lizzie, did you leave them at the front door again?" Felicia scolded, turning to see her guests standing in front of her. "Sorry 'bout Lizzie. Her manners haven't sunk in yet, I'm afraid."

Dawn, however was making no sense of Felicia's words because the other man had turned to face them. Dawn took a shaky breath. He might have a black eye, be clean-shaven, and dressed in modern clothes, but Dawn would still know him anywhere. The man frowned as well, and Dawn was pretty sure he was recognizing her as well.

"Lancelot?"